Payroll processing refers to the whole administration of employees’ financial records that include salaries, bonuses, allowances, deductions, and the net pay that the employees are eligible for. Although payroll processing looks to be pretty simple for the outsiders, it is a complicated and complex process that needs a lot of calculations and verifications on the part of the HR department and the employers. There are certain basic things that every HR professional and the employer should know to ensure an efficient payroll processing, according to the leading HR consultants.

Set up new employees’ records: Even before the payroll processing starts, it should be ensured that all the documents related to employees’ insurance policies, retirement plans, tax details are received by the HR department and the payroll processing professionals have a copy of these documents for their records. HR management consulting professionals say that HR professionals should be careful during this step as they need to differentiate between the employees and freelancers whose benefits and liabilities differ.

Verify employee attendance and working time:Human resources consultancy experts always insist on verifying the accuracy of the number of working days of employees and along with that, checking the exact number of hours keyed-in by the hourly-basis workers and employees. Collecting the required information from the digital attendance system or from the manual registers should be done periodically and verified properly to avoid any kind of wrong calculations in the attendance and making inaccurate payments to employees.

Calculating the amount: Calculation of salaries is a big thing and there could be many variations from time to time. Some employees may receive allowances, some may take loans that need to be adjusted in salaries, some may be liable to taxes, etc. Considering all the different elements of a paycheck, employee salaries need to be calculated accurately.

Releasing salaries: When all the calculations for employees’ salaries are finalized, it’s time to release payment to the employees. According to the top HR management consulting experts, to avoid additional administrative burden and eliminate chances of errors in salary disbursement, it is better to implement direct deposits in the employees’ bank accounts that is beneficial to both companies and employees.

Maintaining records: To keep a track of all the payroll tasks and be well-equipped prepare any kind of reports for the management or government agencies, is it an absolute necessity to stay organized and maintain all the records perfectly.

Payroll policies: To simplify the payroll processing it is essential that the companies have clear and standard payroll policies that are the basis for employee payments including their commission, performance allowances, expense reimbursements, paid leaves etc.

Creating budget: Like for all other expenses, a budget should be created for payroll considering all the unforeseen expenses such as taxes and additional allowances to be paid to employees and HR department should strive to stick to the budget. HR consultants opine that by creating and analyzing payroll budget, companies can avoid unnecessary labor costs as that would enable identifying areas that are over or understaffed.

Consistent Payments: All the employees should be paid the same way and on the same day to reduce confusion and make the payroll process easier.

Provide information online: However well the payroll processing is done, employees will have some kind of doubt or query. To answer the employees’ queries, it is better to provide their payroll information online, so that they can refer to that and clarify their doubts on their own. This will save a lot of time of both the employees and the HR staff. However, if the employees still have doubts, the HR department should be always approachable.

Payroll processing is a significant function for any business and if you think that all this stuff is complicated and you want to get your HR staff relieved from this burden, approach Accuprosys, one of the leading HR consulting firms with expertise in payroll processing.